Press Release Text

Second Hand Songs is a database of cover songs. This project was founded in early 2003 by Bastien De Zutter, Mathieu De Zutter and Denis Monsieur, as at that time there was no reliable source for looking up originals and cover songs.

The main concern of Second Hand Songs is the accuracy of the data. This is achieved by

1. Carefully selecting editors who get access to the database. Currently there are 9 editors from around the world, but we are expanding our team.
2. Being as complete as possible when indexing cover songs. Vague information can't be double-checked and would result in an unreliable database.
3. Ordering the data in a reusable and maintainable way.

Second Hand Songs stands out by the diversity of its indexed songs: covers from all over the world and in any language are accepted. We also invite our vistors to make suggestions for missing covers by joining the forum.

Today, Second Hand Songs is step by step growing to maturity. The database contains over 46 000 songs and 17 000 artists, and is visited daily by 5 000 visitors, who generate on average 20 000 page views. Media all over the world are starting to discover the project, and reviews have been published in the American "Time Magazine" and the "Los Angeles Times", and in the Belgian "Het Laatste Nieuws".

In the future we are planning set up a community system which will enable users to make suggestions through a form, and to rate cover songs. This way we hope to be more than ever the place to be for cover songs on the internet.